Administration

1942 · 86337 — Washington DC: Office of Price Administration 1942. Presumed First Edition First printing no Rev. notification. Single sheet printed on both sides. Good. Format is approximately 16 inches by 10.5 inches folded in half creating a four page document. This form has been folded in half and also be creased/folded perhaps to fit into a pocket. The front page as sections for the Name of Registered Owner and applicant information from the Board and details of the application and of the vehicle. The second page asked for additional details about the applicant and associated vehicles. The third page has certification and agreement of applicant and certification by inspector. The back/last page documents the action by the Rationing Board. Tires were the first item to be rationed by the OPA which ordered the temporary end of sales on 11 December 1941 while it created 7500 unpaid volunteer three-person tire ration boards around the country. By 5 January 1942 the boards were ready. Each received a monthly allotment of tires based on the number of local vehicle registrations and allocated them to applicants based on OPA rules. There was a shortage of natural rubber for tires since the Japanese quickly conquered the rubber-producing regions of Southeast Asia. Although synthetic rubber had been invented before the war it had been unable to compete with natural rubber commercially so the US did not have enough manufacturing capacity at the start of the war to make synthetic rubber. Throughout the war rationing of gasoline was motivated by a desire to conserve rubber as much as by a desire to conserve gasoline. To get a classification and rationing stamps one had to appear before a local War Price and Rationing Board which reported to the OPA. The Office of Price Administration OPA was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money price controls and rents after the outbreak of World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated the Council of National Defense Advisory Commission on May 29 1940 to include Price Stabilization and Consumer Protection Divisions. Both divisions merged to become the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply OPACS within the Office for Emergency Management by Executive Order 8734 on April 11 1941. Civil supply functions were transferred to the Office of Production Management. It became an independent agency under the Emergency Price Control Act January 30 1942. The OPA had the power to place ceilings on all prices except agricultural commodities and to ration scarce supplies of other items including tires automobiles shoes nylon sugar gasoline fuel oil coffee meats and processed foods. At the peak almost 90% of retail food prices were frozen. It could also authorize subsidies for production of some of those commodities. The War Production Board WPB ordered the temporary end of all civilian automobile sales on 1 January 1942 leaving dealers with one half million unsold cars. Ration boards grew in size as they began evaluating automobile sales in February only certain professions such as doctors and clergymen qualified to purchase the remaining inventory of new automobiles typewriters in March and bicycles in May. Automobile factories stopped manufacturing civilian models by early February 1942 and converted to producing tanks aircraft weapons and other military products with the United States government as the only customer. Office of Price Administration unknown